Tiffany Smith, unemployed and seeking help, said she joined 1 Mind Ministries on promises of free food and lodging. She became a caretaker - cooking and cleaning for the group, which at its peak numbered 12, including five children, packed inside an East Baltimore rowhouse.
She said members adhered to what they believed was a strict reading of the Old Testament - using honorifics such as "Queen" and "King," "Prince" and "Princess."
Outside the house, she said, they were required to move in pairs, even to the corner store. They wore white or deep-blue clothes and did not object to smoking marijuana, calling it "God's leaf."
Of their faith, Smith said in an interview yesterday, "They twisted it to fit their life."
But after 11 months, Smith said, the group's leader accused her of mistreating the children and kicked her out of the Robinson Street home in October 2006. She left her 1-year-old son and 2-week-old daughter behind.
Her attempts to retrieve her children, helped by a Baltimore police officer, triggered a chain of events that took members of the group to West Baltimore, Pennsylvania, New York and back to Baltimore, where they now face charges of killing 15-month-old Javon Thompson and stuffing his remains in a suitcase that was found this year locked in a shed behind a home in South Philadelphia.
Smith's encounter with police two years ago was the first time the group is known to have come face to face with authorities.
Smith said she checked into a hospital after getting kicked out - she had given birth without medical care, as is required by the group - and informed the city's Department of Social Services that three other children, including Javon Thompson, were living under unusual conditions with the ministry.
First-hand report
Interviewed by The Sun yesterday outside a civil courtroom after a hearing on an unrelated matter, Smith described life with the group. Court records released yesterday provide additional details.
The group moved from East to West Baltimore, where police said Javon died after being starved for refusing to say "Amen" after meals. After the boy died, police said in court documents, the group prayed over the body for two days, then swaddled it in sheets and stowed it in a green suitcase. From time to time, someone opened the suitcase and sprayed Lysol and put in mothballs.
